Friday, December 14, 2012

Gerard Depardieu Lists Parisian Hôtel Particular

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Although we first heard this a couple days ago from an informant we'll call Pepe Le Pew, a nasty, frustrating and ongoing tangle with our internet service provider has put us well behind the eight ball as regards to the international celebrity real estate news that Golden Globe winning and Oscar-nominated French actor Gerard Depardieu (Green Card, Cyrano de Bergerac, Jean de Florette), has hoisted his super-sized 19th-century hôtel particular in the swank 6th arrondisement of Paris on the open market with an asking price rumored to be somewhere in the neighborhood of €50,000,000. A quick consult with Your Mama's currency conversion contraption shows that's a backbone straightening $65,362,000, at today's rates.

So the stories go, the wealthy 64-year old actor, filmmaker and entrepreneur has allegedly already pulled up stakes and moved to a tiny town in Belgium in order to avoid the temporary but painfully high 75% top tax rate set to take effect in France next year.

Global celebrity gossips say the once dashing now—well—less dashing
actor has already decamped to the small town of Néchin, about 150 north
of Paris and just 800 yard over the French-Belgian border, a tax
avoiding relocation that France's Socialist president François Hollande called a "shabby" maneuver and the Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called "rather pathetic."

Just to be clear, as Your Mama understands it, the dramatically high rate applies to annual revenues in excess of €1,000,000, about 1,300,000 U.S. dollars at today's rates. "The highest marginal tax rate on the first $1.3 million would be 45 percent," according to an October report in the New York Times. That means if a resident of France earns €999,999 their tax rate tops out at 45%. President Hollande has said, according the New York Times article, that the higher rate was "a largely symbolic measure that will affect only a few thousand individuals." Anyhoo...

We don't know how to check property records in France but recent reports out of France reveal the much lauded and applauded actor actually acquired the property in 1994 for 25,000,000 (pre-euro) French francs, an amount then equal to about $4,614,670 (US). We're not able to check property records in France but

Mister Depardieu's Parisian pied a terre comprises two separate structures, according to listing information, with a total of 10 bedrooms in around 1,800 square meters of interior space. That's right around 19,375 square feet. The historic part of Monsieur Depardieu's humongous house—dubbed the Hôtel de Chambon—was built in 1820 for and named after the Baron de Chambon. Monsieur Depardieu acquired it in 2003 for an unknown sum. His original plans called for a 1.5 renovation—that's just under two million U.S. clams at today's rates—that would provide office space for his film production company as well as several apartments for family and friends. At some point Monsieur Depardieu switched gears and began to convert the bulk of the residence to a luxury boutique hotel that was scheduled to open sometime in 2013.

A private garden separates the hôtel from Monsieur Depardieu's much more contemporary private living quarters. The multi-level abode's primary living space is an especially cavernous, loft-like main room with living, dining and cooking areas. There are at least two bedrooms and—very rare in central Paris—a private indoor swimming pool in the basement. The children will note the elaborately florid fretwork on stairs and over the exterior windows.

Mister Depardieu is not the only wealthy Frenchman said to have (allegedly) left France in order to avoid the sky-high taxes. Both superstar singer Johnny Hallyday and Old Timey French actor Alain Delon have long lived in Switzerland and multi-billionaire Bernard Arnault—he-rah of the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) multi-national luxury goods conglomeration—was raked over the coals by the media last year when it became public he'd requested Belgian citizenship. Monsieur Arnault has denied the change in citizenship was requested due to tax reasons and, indeed, he sued one newspaper for public insult for making such a claim.

40 comments:

How the hell did he earn enough money to buy that? Does he come from money? His wife? He has not had that successful a career. If he can afford that then Tom Cruise should be able to buy a $500 million house.

Mama, you need to remove these Indian ads from your blog. Now as for Monsieur Depardieu (Vaya Con Dios in French?) one hopes his move doesn't screw up his life as such actions often do. Anyway he seems determined to leave France with his money or some of it just to escape some taxes that will likely be temporary. The US used to have a top tax rate of 90% under Eisenhower but I don't recall the Rockefellers and Mellons, et. alia picking up and leaving as a result. In any case France doesn't really need this has-been actor and his money that isn't all that much in the larger picture of things.

10:27 I don't have exact figures but I suspect the number of tax exiles is not all that many. And some like Piasecka (sp?) Johnson go to Monaco or Luxembourg or the Bahamas. The rich of the world would like you to think they will all just flee the minutes their taxes go up; not all that many actually do.

Note: When the US had a 90 percent tax rate, there were lots of loopholes to escape through. The effective rate was roughly 45 percent, or pretty much what they are now if you live in California or New York.

Also, temporary taxes have a way of becoming permanent. As a California resident I can attest to that.

So tiresome to hear selfish rich people always complaining about taxes and how abused they are to have to pay them. They should lower their incomes to the point where they don't have to pay any taxes and be happy that way. Lotsa luck.

Well they can't move their houses. so tax the houses. Taxes have caused very few people to move. Some do; not missed. Is the US suffering because Barbara Johnson moved to Monaco or Marc Rich moved to Switzerland? NO. So let them hop anywhere they want if they think that will make them happier and more able to clutch in miserly fashion their money to their bosom. If high taxes made all the rich move, Sweden would be people-less. Of course the rich would love you to get all in a panic because they might go somewhere else.